Texas A&M apparel retailer cashing in on Seattle Seahawks’ success

The Seattle Seahawks may be flying a plane around Seattle to remind travelers where the NFL’s 12th Man resides, but Texas A&M wants you to know where the original 12th Man is found.

Texas A&M apparel retailer Aggieland Outfitters is selling t-shirts with the slogan “The Original 12th Man” on the front, with an established date printed beneath the text. The back of the shirt reads “A tradition about more than noise.” The shirts were printed after the Seahawks wrapped up the NFC championship against the San Francisco 49ers to clinch a trip to the Super Bowl.

Texas A&M owns the trademark to the 12th Man, but the school and the Seahawks have an agreement in place allowing the Seahawks to make use of the 12th Man moniker with their fans. Seattle’s football franchise pays Texas A&M for the rights to the trademark, as fans of both teams have taken to the identity.

Epic. I like the “est. 1922″ that implicitly calls out the bandwagon Seahawks fans who weren’t fans until 2012. I’m from Seattle and attending UT Law but I’m buying one because Seahawks fans are obnoxious.

Say what you want about A&M, but the 12th Man was born in College Station. The 12th Man was a student that came out of the stands and suited up to play back in 1922 when the team was decimated by injuries. E. King Gill stood ready, as all Aggies do. A&M trademarked it to protect it.

Dixie, cheerleaders are fun to look at, but Yell Leaders incite the 12th Man to eardrum bursting levels. I have been at the top of the horseshoe next to a buddy who had his eardrums burst. It is about creating a true home field advantage, Austin does not give you that.
We are taught in fish camp how to yell in unison, how to give our team that advantage. Death Valley provides it through alcohol and volume, Kyle Field provides it through a directed, united roar.

I guess having a rational discussion stating facts is too much for CFT.

The history behind the use of the term 12th man actually started in a newspaper article related to an University of Iowa football game about 10 years before E. King Gill. It was used only the one time in the paper and nobody must have believed at Iowa.

Simply using the phrase 12th man doesn’t seem to put justice to the full history behind what it has meant to Texas A&M. E. King Gill was just the start of students being requested to fill in for the football team. There are a total of 146 players that have been called on to become football players at Texas A&M.

1 volunteered in 1930 to play center, 9 more in 1941 and 135 in 1943. The 135 in 1943 was due to the fact that all but 4 of the players on the team had left for service in World War 2. That meant that there were more 12th man players than scholarship / returning players for that football season.

That is what I would call an established history of what it means to be a true 12th man.

MasMacho says:Jan 31, 2014 4:17 PM

Seems like the A&M fans on the thread forget that A&M sold the rights to the mark for $100k in 2005, plus an annual fee of $5000. Apparently they didn’t value it too much.

thraiderskin says:Jan 31, 2014 4:17 PM

I really like the 12th man history of Texas A&M, but I don’t understand why Seattle would have to pay to use a 12th man that is of a far different origin.

Texas A&M University controls how the Seahawks can officially use the term 12th Man, licensing it to Seattle in a limited scope and for a minimal fee. It’s part of a unique agreement that runs until July 2016, with renegotiation discussions already underway.

Texas A&M, which actively polices its trademark, uses the term to refer to the entire student body, past and present, and to capture the general spirit of being an Aggie.

A&M successfully sued the NFL and the Seattle
Seahawks in Federal Court in 2006 by showing their University had precedent since 1922, some thing Seattle failed to even note in their initial lawsuit AGAINST Texas A&M University stating that the had ownership.

Listen to any Seahawk’s football telecast and radio
broadcast, they have a disclaimer they read on every broadcast acknowledging Texas A&M University’s ownership of the 12th Man moniker.

Agreement rights are about to go up big time for the licensing of 12th Man to Seattle.

“You know how much I love Seattle. Seattle’s been great for me and my family.” “But the 12th Man is in College Station, Texas. Hopefully, the world knows it, but if they don’t know it, they know it now.”

That said… I think for the most part Seattle has done the 12th man brand well. Again, throwing food at injured players doesn’t help, but you can’t judge an entire fan base by the actions of 1 or 2. Every fanbase, including Aggies, has it’s share of yahoos. But Hawks fans show up, make lots of noise, and contribute to a pretty great gameday environment.